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Faulty Reasoning in Anti-Voucher Argument
By William T. Barrante, Watertown
Robert Quint's argument against school vouchers [Reason Argues Against School Vouchers, September 20] is interesting but faulty. First, he assumes that tax funds are the government’s money rather than the people's money. Thus he can say that a voucher given to parents to help pay for education in a private school is the use of tax money. Social Security payments are also "government money," but a recipient of Social Security is free to donate all or part of such funds to any church or religious organization. As long as the choice of what to do with the money is made by the parents, it is not a governmental decision or action to subsidize a religious school.
Second, his argument appears to be grounded in an opposition to private education whether the schools are religious or nonsectarian. He says that "an important advantage of public education is that students are exposed to other cultures and ideas." That may have been true 50 or 100 years ago, but today’s students in private schools are not shielded from the world. There are students of all races and cultures in private schools. And, pray tell, how much "diversity" is there in the Watertown school system?
Mr. Quint is concerned that school vouchers would be available to parents who might want to send their children to "fundamentalist Islamic" schools and that Christian fundamentalists would be cashing in on the program. So what? If a school is accredited, then it would qualify for a voucher whatever its philosophy is. It's the parents' choice. At any rate, any school that is teaching terrorism would most likely not qualify for the program. But that is not really Mr. Quint's concern. He wants all children in any community to receive the same education. That is a good "democratic" position. But in a free society, parents are the first teachers, and they should have as much freedom as possible in the education of their offspring. How much say do parents have over how their tax money is being spent in the public school system? Not much. What a school voucher does is return money to the parent so that the parent can make the choice.
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